New Life.

Headed out this morning just after 9am for my first trip of the year to the other Dale. I set off from home and it wasnt too bad, overcast with the additional glimpse of the sun from time to time, by the time I had got to my chosen place to park the car, the windscreen wipers were on full tilt and the wind was blowing very cold.
Luckily after sitting 5 to 10 minutes in the car the rain started to pass but the wind although not strong was very cold indeed.

Still  undecided what to start with I put the rod together and walked to the river to see what it would be like and make my chose there.

No signs of any fly or fish movement & really no wonder as the cold wind was blowing straight down the river, so it was settled, a set of spiders to start of with.

It wasnt long till I felt the first pluck from a small fish and soon afterwards a small Grayling came to the net.

I fished up through the runs but nothing further took any notice of the flies, so it was a short walk to my next set of runs, and as I approached the geese were still around & I imagined there would be a couple of nests nearby as it was this time last year that I discovered one of their nests.





Fishing through the next set of runs brought a further two small Grayling and a small Trout.

The wind was still very much blowing downstream and cold so I huddled behind a gorse bush to get some ease from the cold wind and take a moment to scan the river for any fly movement.

The Gorse proudly standing out in full bloom.

A few moment spent scanning the surface, I detected a couple of olives emerging but as soon as they were on the surface the wind was blowing them off the water and they were gone before the fish could have any real time to react to them. There wasnt many and it did not cause me any justification to swap over so I continued on the spiders.

I stumbled across my first nest of the day virtually at the last moment as no geese were around when I approached, the eggs were still warm so I didn't want to hang around, a quick picture and I walked on, I think the stones in the nest will take some sitting on before anything comes from those.







Literally 10 minutes later I came across my second nest, off the ground this time build in a lot of debris which was 5 foot off the ground tangled in the willows.

Moving on again I left it alone after a quick picture. It wont be long until we see some young goslings following their parents everywhere.

Walking on down through the woods I came to a spot on the river which was sheltered from the wind and the fly life was taking full advantage of the shelter with a large hatch of olives emerging out, but no fish were looking up at them so fishing through with a set of spiders I encountered my 2nd trout of the day, and a long range release soon developed. 

I sat in the cover of the willows to rest the pool and I look around and found a cock pheasant coming towards me, without uttering a sound, I knew if I moved it would be off so grabbing my camera I got a brief  picture as he passed by.






After resting the pool for 10 minutes or so I tried again and almost immediately was rewarded for my patience with another trout.

I heard a chirping noise from where I had laid my rod to rest whilst taking the photograph and on investigating found this little guy.








Looking behind the fallen tree stump I came across another nest where by the look of things a gosling had recently hatched as it was still wet from the egg sack, and its two other nest sharing family members. I placed the third gosling which was still wandering around back in the nest and moved on, so that the parents could get back as soon as possible.

Moving upstream past the wood I hooked into a nice fish which I initially thought to be a trout but soon discovered it to be a large Grayling, a quick photograph and it was gone

Another two smaller Grayling graced the spiders before it went quiet.

Walking back through the wood the 1st sight of bluebells appearing, which is late as this time last year the woods were full of them all open in full colour, this year they are just starting to open, for sure everything is a few weeks late than normal.





Walking back downstream the wind when I exited the woods appeared again and it was still bitterly cold, no wonder the Sand Martins were all sat along the fence and not on the wing catching emerging  flies as there was none, the wind had taken care of that.

With nothing further happening I called it a day but by no means was it a poor day, nature had certainly kept me entertained with everything.